City council considers pressurized water system

Over 155 residents calmly considered options for solving water pressure problems at a special Morgan City Council working meeting Tuesday evening.

“We are running out of water rights, although we are working on that right now,” said Kent Wilkerson, a city engineer, who gave a presentation and a proposal at the meeting. “We are running over water rights at peak times.”

The council did not make any decisions Tuesday but dedicated the meeting to giving them and the community a more educated opinion on the issue.

“We’ve just scratched the surface tonight,” said Mayor Marie Heiner. “We need to do what is best for the community, not necessarily what is best for specific individuals.”

Wilkerson, of Gardner Engineering, gave an in-depth proposal to the council of the factors involved in installing a pressurized irrigation system compared with performing a major culinary upgrade. He also showed benefits and downfalls of having the city provide a pressurized irrigation system by demand or that of requiring residents to install it across the board.

Both systems will cost a pretty penny, for the city and for residents.

The council weighed the possibility of reducing the initial installation charge of $615, which was announced in a letter sent to Morgan City residents. They also discussed whether to fund the installation with city impact fees. This funding would not include the cost for individual residents to extend pipes through their property.

A pressurized irrigation system would be less expensive in the long run because it would lessen the need to upgrade the culinary system in the near future. It would also conserve water compared to the flooding method, which loses a lot of water in transport and by evaporation. The current flooding irrigation system, which only some residents have rights to, will continue to be less efficient as the town grows.

“It takes my wife 15 minutes to fill the washer,” said a man who lives of State Street. “My lawn doesn’t care if it’s secondary or culinary. But something needs to be done.”

A gentleman who recently moved from Salt Lake City said his pipes in the city had 35 pounds of pressure, but after replacing the pipes here, he doesn’t believe that a pressurized irrigation system will help.

A pressurized irrigation system would have a flat fee each month which would be determined by the percentage of residents who install them. Wilkerson estimated a charge of $15 a month if 50 percent of residents have them. The monthly fee would be below $10 if the town has 100 percent participation, Wilkerson said.

Look for an in-depth report on the benefits of culinary and pressurized secondary water systems in next week’s Morgan County News.